It might be hard to believe, but the Screaming Squirrels roller team hadn’t finished the season in first place since 2003. Though they have three championships despite that, it wasn’t until Wednesday 11-2 victory did they lock up the top spot with 22 points in 14 games. The second place Jesters also finished with 22 points but the Squirrels won the tie breaker.

Next up is the playoffs, where they’ll face the Real C Team – one of the teams that beat the Squirrels before their 9-game winning streak.

With a 3-0 lead in the second period, the Squirrels killed off a 2-minute 4-on-2, but then surrendered three goals in 1 minute and 11 seconds to a short-benched Whale team. The Squirrels, however, won the game in the shootout with goals from Mark Tessar and Eric Smith. Jeff Ford scored twice for the Squirrels while Don Marks had the other. Tessar had three assists. This marked the first time in two years that the Squirrels beat the Whale.

The Whale continues to be the thorn in the Squirrels’ side as they defeated them, 6-4 on Wednesday. The Squirrels did, however, outshoot them, 30-17.

Despite a 4-2 advantage at the half, and a 6-1 advantage on the power play, the Squirrels dropped a shootout to the Whale, 7-6. The Squirrels came inches from tying the game in the final seconds but missed by inches.

With only two subs on the bench, the Screaming Squirrels played long shifts and sucked wind for much of the game Thursday, but somehow managed a late-game scoring surge to beat the recently demoted Whale, 5-2.

Despite playing defensively much of the game, the Squirrels jumped out to an early 2-0 lead with goals by Stu Miller and Kyle Gassert. Then the Whale struck back with two goals in less than a minute.

Very little happened in the third period. Whale, which had three subs, continued to put pressure on the Squirrels, but goaltender Bob Sewell came up big.

Then something unexpected happened late in the game. The Squirrels, utterly exhausted, scored three goals in about a minute and a half after capitalizing off of Whale turnovers, including two by Stu Miller and one by Mark Tessar.

This is the first loss for the Whale in this division. No penalties were called in the game.